Furious politicians and Army veterans accused BNP leader Nick Griffin of being “pure evil” last night after he compared two distinguished former generals to Nazi monsters.

Racist Griffin claimed ex-Army chiefs Sir Mike Jackson and Sir Richard Dannatt were no different from Hitler’s commanders because they had pursued “illegal” wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Cabinet Minister Peter Hain said: “This is the BNP revealing their true face, the face of evil. They don’t just hate black people, Jews and Muslims but are evil in every respect.”

Tory MP and ex-Army officer Patrick Mercer said Griffin needed to “get a grip on reality.” He added: “If he had spent a moment of his life in uniform or serving his country he would never make claims like this.”

A Tory spokesman described the comments as “absolutely despicable and abhorrent.”

Griffin made his remarks on a BNP website hours after the generals criticised the far-right BNP for trying to “hijack” the good name of the Army by using military images in its election campaigns.

Sir Richard, Sir Mike, ex-head of the Armed Forces Lord Guthrie and former Desert Rats’ commander Major-General Patrick Cordingley issued a statement that said: “We call on all those who seek to hijack the good name of Britain’s military for their own advantage to cease and desist. The values of these extremists, many of whom are essentially racist, are fundamentally at odds with the values of the modern British military, such as tolerance and fairness.”

General Jackson specifically attacked the BNP, which used pictures of servicemen and women, Churchill and the iconic Spitfire warplane during its Euro election campaign. He said: “The BNP is claiming it has a better relationship with the Armed Forces than other political parties.

“How dare they use the image of the Army, in particular, to promote their policies? These people are beyond the pale.”

Within hours Griffin had cynically ramped up the row by claiming on his party’s website that Churchill could have been a BNP member. Griffin, due to make a controversial appearance on BBC1’s Question Time tomorrow, then compared the generals to the Nazis who were tried at the Nuremburg war trials and hanged for their crimes.

He said: “Along with the political leadership of Nazi Germany, the chiefs of staff of the German army, Alfred Jodl and Wilhelm Keitel, were also charged with waging aggressive war.

“Sir Richard and Sir Mike fall squarely into this bracket and they must not think that they will escape culpability for pursuing the illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

The BNP also launched a libellous attack on Welsh Secretary Peter Hain, who has demanded that the BBC drop Griffin from Question Time.

In an email to BNP supporters, Mr Hain, a leading campaigner against South Africa’s racist apartheid regime, was branded a “former bank robber”.

The MP was arrested on suspicion of bank theft in the 1970s but acquitted and was widely believed to be the victim of a plot to frame him by the South African authorities.

Mr Hain said last night: “What they said about me is libellous and I know a lot of campaigners want to drain the BNP’s finances with legal action.

“But I have got more important things on my mind at the moment.”

Mr Hain was yesterday still leading the campaign to get Griffin kicked off the Question Tine panel.